This year, the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) will host the LGBTQIA+ Pride Celebratory Night on August 22, which promises to be a tribute to queer cinema and queer South Asian identity in Australia. The organisers have a film that not only reflects queer romance, but also celebrates Indian films’ long association with the theme. Director Prem Kapoor’s Badnam Basti (1971), widely considered as India’s first queer-themed movie, will be the night’s opening film.

Based on Kamleshwar’s 1957 novel Ek Sadak Sattavan Galiyan, Badnam Basti delicately portrays queer desire as it tells the story of a bus driver and a cleaner. It was reportedly shot over four weeks on a shoestring budget of Rs 2.5 lakh and released with an ‘A’ certificate after a few cuts. For decades, the film’s print was presumed lost, until a rare English-subtitled print was discovered in 2019 at Arsenal Institute in Berlin. This print, alongside original negatives from Pune’s NFDC–NFAI  archive, formed the basis of a full digital restoration completed in 2025.

Mitu Bhowmik Lange, IFFM director, says that the festival is committed to inclusivity and representation. Screening Badnam Basti brings them closer to that goal. “It is our responsibility to reflect the world we live in, with all its diversity. This Pride Night is not just about celebrating queer identity but also reclaiming the space that has long been dnied to LGBTQIA+ narratives in Indian cinema.”